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2022 Hautes Alpes Blanc “Grand Pic”

Domaine Les Hauts Lieux
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In 2019, mountain sports enthusiast Mickaël Olivon settled in the remote Hautes-Alpes region to pursue his other passion, wine. He recovered some of France’s highest vineyards, perched at 3,000 feet elevation beneath some of the tallest summits in the Alps, and got to work producing unlikely field blends such as this white featuring Marsanne, Jacquère, Altesse, Müller Thurgau, and Chasan. It doesn’t taste like anything we’ve ever imported before, so I like to open it to stump my guests, confuse sommeliers, and ultimately savor a cool glass of something delicious and unusual.

Anthony Lynch

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Technical Information
Wine Type: white
Vintage: 2022
Bottle Size: 750mL
Blend: 40% Marsanne, 20% Jacquère, 20% Altesse, 15% Müller Thurgau, 5% Chasan
Appellation: IGP Hautes Alpes
Country: France
Region: Savoie, Bugey, Hautes-Alpes
Producer: Domaine Les Hauts Lieux
Winemaker: Mickaël Olivon
Vineyard: Planted in 1980s, 1.8 ha total
Soil: Moraine and scree (dolomite, silt, gravel)
Farming: Organic (certified)
Alcohol: 13.5%

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About The Region

Savoie, Bugey, Hautes-Alpes

map of Savoie, Bugey, Hautes-Alpes

Fifteen or twenty years ago, there was little buzz about the wines of Savoie, the Alpine region hugging the Swiss and Italian borders. In fact, most wines from Savoie were some combination of overcropped, thin, searingly acidic, and painfully rustic; even the best examples rarely made it out of the local mountain resorts, where they were served as an après-ski to wash down many a melty croque-monsieur.

But all that has changed, and today Savoie produces a number of top-quality wines in all styles, from simple thirst-quenchers to wines of substantial gravity. Kermit sought out some of these wines early in his career, having imported the spritzy, mineral whites of Apremont and Chignin in the late 1970s.

With vineyards at the foot of the Alps that occasionally climb to higher elevations, Savoie is defined by its mountain-influenced climate and extremely rocky terrain, with abundant limestone. Thanks to a diversity of indigenous grape varieties, quality-oriented growers with the choicest parcels—steep and well-exposed—can craft anything from crisp, low-alcohol whites from Jacquère to deep, gamey reds from Mondeuse. More serious whites are made from Altesse as well as Bergeron, the local name for Roussanne, which the Romans planted on the slopes of Chignin around the same time as they introduced it to the Rhône Valley.

Savoie’s diversity of styles and distinct sub-regions, from Arbin to Seyssel to the Bugey (technically not a part of Savoie, but included here for convenience) makes it a fascinating region for the thirsty explorer. There is no better place to look for brisk mountain refreshment.

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Where the newsletter started

Every three or four months I would send my clients a cheaply made list of my inventory, but it began to dawn on me that business did not pick up afterwards. It occurred to me that my clientele might not know what Château Grillet is, either. One month in 1974 I had an especially esoteric collection of wines arriving, so I decided to put a short explanation about each wine into my price list, to try and let my clients know what to expect when they uncorked a bottle. The day after I mailed that brochure, people showed up at the shop, and that is how these little propaganda pieces for fine wine were born.—Kermit Lynch

Read the whole story

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